An uncomfortable sensation of heat is elicited within an individual when the individual touches interlaced warm and cool bars with their skin. The sensations of discomfort and temperature and even pain have been analogized to the burning sensation that accompanies touching extremely cold objects.
One of the prevailing explanations of this burning sensation is that the perception of “heat” is a fusion of sensations resulting from simultaneous activation of warm and cool sensors within the body. Modern physiological findings have confirmed the existence of separate cutaneous receptors for warm and cool. It is interesting to note that the cutaneous receptors that are associated with a cold sensation appear to be activated by low and high temperatures.
A thermal grill is a device that includes interlaced or alternating warm and cool portions that are able to cause discomfort and even pain to an individual without causing physiological damage when the individual touches the interlaced warm and cool portions. The relative size, shape, design, configuration, temperature, and orientation of the interlaced warm and cool portions may be varied to adjust the level of discomfort that can be generated within an individual that touches the thermal grill with their skin.
Many articles intended for personal wear, e.g., such as diapers, training pants, feminine hygiene products, adult incontinence products, bandages, medical garments and the like are designed to be sufficiently absorbent to pull moisture from liquid body exudates including urine, menses, blood, etc. away from the wearer to reduce skin irritation caused by prolonged wetness exposure. In some instances, such as for toilet training children, there is a belief that children must be given a signal such as an uncomfortable and/or wet feeling against the skin to facilitate toilet training by making the child more aware that the act of urination has occurred. On the other hand, there is a counter-balancing concern about the possibility of skin irritations and rashes caused by prolonged wetness against the skin if the articles are less absorbent to allow the child to sense wetness. However, by making articles such as training pants so absorbent, it is difficult for the wearer to realize that an insult of the article has occurred.
To this end, some articles intended for personal wear during toilet training include means for alerting a child to urination without leaving a substantial amount of wetness against the skin. For example, one such article includes a temperature changing element that allows the wearer to feel a change in temperature against the skin upon urination, thereby alerting the wearer to the urination.
Another example of training pants intended to provide a sensory indication of urination includes an element that changes size after urination, e.g., expanding toward the wearer's crotch region. However, such elements are typically surrounded by highly absorbent structures (sometimes referred to as absorbent cores) which compete for and may draw urine away from the element, thereby prolonging or otherwise inhibiting the expansion thereof and diminishing its potential training effectiveness. Also, superabsorbent material (SAM) which is used to make the highly absorbent structures of such articles expands upon absorbing urine. Such expansion may mask or otherwise cushion the feeling of the expanded sensory element, thus making it difficult for the wearer to sense the intended signal.
Another example of training pants intended to provide a sensory indication of urination includes an element that completes a circuit and broadcasts an audible or visual alarm, alerting a caregiver that an insult has occurred.
Consequently, while there has been progress in the design of personal wear articles capable of alerting a wearer to a release of liquid body exudates, there continues to be a need for improvements in such articles.